Sivasagar on people-connect path

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Jorhat, Aug. 1: The Sivasagar district administration has decided to organise public grievance redressal meetings every Wednesday in different places to listen to people’s problems and arrange for their speedy disposal.

Sivasagar deputy commissioner S.S. Meenakshi Sundaram, along with senior administration and police officials and heads of all government departments, will attend the meetings.

Sundaram told The Telegraph today that the meetings would be organised with the aim to bring the administration closer to the people and to improve the delivery of services. The administration has decided to put a permanent mechanism (called public grievances protocol) in place to receive and expedite solution to public grievances, he added.

He said it has been observed that in many cases even after the government sanctions and releases funds for public work, there is inordinate delay in launching of the project and in some cases beneficiaries selected under different government schemes have to run from pillar to post to get their work done.

“People come across a variety of problems and to attend to those complaints at the earliest, a mechanism is needed. We hope having a direct interface between senior administration officials and citizens will bring down the resentment among the public and government schemes and projects undertaken for public benefit will be easily be available,” the official said.

Sundaram said the initiative would be launched from August 6 by organising the first meeting on his office campus. The meetings will also be held at the office of the Charaideo sub-divisional officer (civil) at Sonari on the second Wednesday of every month, office of the Nazira sub-divisional officer (civil) on the third Wednesday of every month. The meetings will be held on the first and fourth Wednesdays of every month at the Sivasagar DC’s office campus.

The duration of the sessions will be around three hours from 11am. He said those matters which can be sorted out on the spot will be done immediately and those that need to be routed through certain departments or agencies, will be forwarded to the respective departments and a nodal officer will be appointed to keep track of the same.

“If the DC cannot attend any meetings owing to some important work or preoccupation, a senior additional deputy commissioner will conduct the interaction,” Sundaram said.

He said a 24-hour helpline would be also launched from August 15. One can call 03772222007 for any kind of advice or assistance, he added.

The service to be run by a dedicated group of staff from the DC’s office will be operated from the Sivasagar circuit house. He said the caller would be provided preliminary guidance/assistance for whatever query one asks for any kind of situation or problem. “Women facing domestic violence or any kind of torture could call the helpline for assistance and would get proper guidance,” Sundaram said.

The official said a mechanism is being worked out to reduce the response time during any kind of disaster. He said the disaster management cell of the DC’s office would be able to alert through messages to all officials and staff of the departments concerned and agencies attached to the disaster management network within a few minutes of receiving information about any kind of calamity.